This coincided with calls in Egypt for a boycott of the “Queen Cleopatra” series, which the “Netflix” platform has begun to broadcast, and which depicts the queen descending from a Macedonian family in black, that is as if she came from sub-Saharan Africa.
Dr Magdy Shaker, chief archaeologist at Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, told Sky News Arabia that Cleopatra’s skin color was “totally out of favor with the truth”, referring to the presence of many works featuring clear facial features, far from the peculiarities of sub-Saharan Africa presented in the series. .
For his part, the art critic Ahmed El-Messiri warned against the danger of leaving the presentation of history to the cinema and the theater, at the whim of the creators of artistic works.
Al-Masiri explained in an interview with “Sky News Arabia” that “cinema is the most influential and widespread source and ability to create new mental images that last for a long time, although research, studies and books are the primary scientific source for presenting facts.”
He added, “We need to pay attention to the quality of historical artworks, as well as books and research. Anyone who is unable to tell his story and his story, others will tell it about him, but with his style, his prejudices and his vision.
Crisis of the Cleopatra series
“Netflix” announced the presentation of the “Queen Cleopatra” series with skin and features that differ from what was common on this subject in previous antiques and works of art, and responded to the wave of objections saying that Egypt was inhabited by many people of African descent, including Cleopatra, according to documents that fell into the hands of the producers of the series, according to him. . Egyptians and Egyptologists consider this matter to be part of attempts by foreign platforms to present Egyptians and rulers who passed through Egypt in ancient history, that they were black-skinned, and that the civilization Egyptian is a civilization made by black Africans, and not its known inhabitants who prevail in the color of the countries of the Mediterranean basin. Archaeologically and historically, Cleopatra VII is known to be the last of the Ptolemaic Macedonian family that ruled Egypt at the time of the Greco-Macedonian occupation of Egypt, which she inherited until her fall in 30 BC. . The Macedonian figure of Cleopatra embodies some of the statues and heads in the Vatican Museum and the Berlin Museum, she was also painted on the facade of the Temple of Hathor in Luxor accompanied by her son Caesarion and coins found at the interior of the temple. of “Taposiris Magna” in Alexandria did not include any strokes or black strokes. The series has aroused the anger and mistrust of the Egyptian public about the intentions of the work, because the producer of the work is Jada Pinkett Smith, the wife of the famous actor Will Smith, and she is one of the black Africans , and defenders of the ideas of “Africanism” who claim that the origin and creators of all famous civilizations are black Africans.
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